Editing Eurovision Wiki:WikiProject AI Cleanup/Noticeboard (section)

== More LLM translations, more issues ==

This is another set of translations from the OKA project (which has disclosed LLM use), but I found it via an unrelated search. 

There are dozens of these but I'm just going to focus on [[Caciquism]]. [https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Caciquisme&oldid=205907507 This is the French article at that time]. There is AI text that does not have any counterpart in it, most of which are synthesis tacked on to paragraphs, such as:
* {{tq|This linguistic borrowing highlights the historical and cultural connections between these various groups.}}
<s>* {{tq|This made them a crucial link during the era.}}</s> (see below) 
* {{tq|This anecdote depicts the workings of caciquism and the seizure of power by the two dynastic parties.}}
* {{tq|Additionally, the formation of important mass parties, such as the CEDA, marked a pivotal moment in political history.}} (CEDA is mentioned and called an important party but not the "pivotal moment" stuff)

This seems to be most of the obvious ones; my knowledge of French isn't good enough to assess the faithfulness of the actually translated stuff well. (It seems like some direct quotes are being paraphrased and/or "translated" into AI-isms, which seem somewhat anachronistic given the period of history we're talking, but that could well be from the French quotes.) [[User:Gnomingstuff|Gnomingstuff]] ([[User talk:Gnomingstuff|talk]]) 21:48, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

:I know the head of the project has come forward to disclose use, but it looks like it’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding how much AI this project contains. The [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OKA/Instructions_for_editors instructions on meta] direct people to translate using Grok, then use other LLMs to improve the language. I can’t imagine the result being anything more than nonsense soup. By their [http://oka.wiki/ own admission], the bulk of the work is done via LLM. [[User:ExtantRotations|ExtantRotations]] ([[User talk:ExtantRotations|talk]]) 02:40, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
:Luckily, I'm a native French speaker so I should be able to help! The lead section is an accurate translation with sentences being split for readability, with the only three actual changes being {{tq|Dans l'historiographie, ainsi que dans la presse ou les milieux intellectuels de l'époque}} (In historiography, as well as in the press or intellectual circles of the era) becoming {{tq|In historiography, journalism, and intellectual circles of the era}} (removing the implication that it was the press ''of that era''), {{tq|très influent essai}} (very influential essay) being translated to {{tq|influential essay}}, and that same sentence moving around leading {{tq|en raison du ...}} (due to the...) becoming {{tq|... popularized the term}}. So, pretty okay lead translation all things considered.{{pb}}In the [[Caciquism#Concept of "cacique"|#Concept of "cacique"]] section, the very first paragraph adds changes in meaning. Besides the hallucinated sentence pointed out by @[[User:Gnomingstuff|Gnomingstuff]], it removes the fact that the word in other Western European languages is a borrowing of the Spanish one (while that could be something not verified by the source, there is no indication of that being the case). It also adds a {{tq|specifically}} (in {{tq|It referred specifically to...}}) which doesn't carry any meaning or equivalent in the French original. The second paragraph is a very accurate translation, and I don't have anything to say about it. In the third paragraph, I'm confused by "seigneur" not being translated – the word doesn't have any specifically French meaning as we're talking about Spanish society primarily, and translating it as "lord" (while keeping the Spanish original "{{lang|es|señor}}") would've made more sense. What leaves me more puzzled is the choice to move half of the later quote outside of the quotation marks while leaving it closely paraphrased.{{pb}}The fourth paragraph is where we start to see more inaccurate translations, especially in quotes: {{tq|personne puissante, qui jouit d’une influence par la crainte qu’il inspire dans une localité}} (a powerful person who holds influence through the fear they instill in a locality) becomes {{tq|a dominating individual who instills fear and holds influence in a locality}}, which, while approximate, obscures the link made in the original quote between fear and influence. We also see {{tq|qui a plus de commandement et de pouvoir, et veut par sa superbe être craint et obéi des inférieurs}} (who wields more command and power, and wants through his splendor to be feared and obeyed by inferiors) become {{tq|who wields more power and commands more respect by being feared and obeyed by those beneath them}}, which completely reverses the causal link. The fifth paragraph and the two associated quotes are comparatively quite accurate. The last paragraph of this first subsection is also okay, although we again see the issue of quotes being very closely paraphrased without being marked as quotes. The other two very short subsections (three sentences in total) are fine too.{{pb}}In the beginning of the second section, {{tq|This made them a crucial link during the era.}} is surprisingly not an AI-ism, but a translation of {{tq|Il devient toutefois un maillon véritablement essentiel au cours de...}} that got moved at the end of the paragraph. I've only briefly scrolled through the rest of the article, but I'm especially concerned at two long paragraphs, marked as unsourced in the French original, being imported without sources and with the tags removed. [[User:Chaotic Enby|<span style="color:#8a7500">Chaotic <span style="color:#9e5cb1">Enby</span></span>]] ([[User talk:Chaotic Enby|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Chaotic Enby|contribs]]) 11:24, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
::oh good catch on the latter, I was mostly going sentence by sentence. For some reason LLMs seem to really hate direct quotations when used for editing, they often replace them with paraphrases, so that part isn't surprising. [[User:Gnomingstuff|Gnomingstuff]] ([[User talk:Gnomingstuff|talk]]) 14:22, 9 January 2026 (UTC)
:::The more worrying part is that the direct quotations are often very closely paraphrased (if at all) while not being marked as quotes in the output. [[User:Chaotic Enby|<span style="color:#8a7500">Chaotic <span style="color:#9e5cb1">Enby</span></span>]] ([[User talk:Chaotic Enby|talk]] · [[Special:Contributions/Chaotic Enby|contribs]]) 14:33, 9 January 2026 (UTC)